The window for a Pix receiver to contest a return executed through the Mecanismo Especial de Devolução (MED) rose from 30 to 80 days on September 1, 2026. The change is set out in version 8.5 of the DICT Operational Manual, published by Instrução Normativa BCB 766 of July 27, 2026. The Banco Central do Brasil designed the measure to protect merchants, service providers and small businesses hit by fraudulent refund claims.
Under the previous version of the manual, a receiver had 30 days after a return transaction to contest it. Section 20.1.9 of version 8.5 now states that the contestation may be made within 80 days of the return transaction. The manual lists as a legitimate case a return of the original transaction under a MED request that the payer opened in order to defraud the receiver. Returns made to correct an operational failure remain outside the contestation route. The payer-side window to contest an original pacs.008 payment was already 80 days. In effect, both sides of a disputed Pix now work to the same 80-day horizon.
IN BCB 766 was published in the Diário Oficial da União on July 29, 2026. The instruction sets September 1, 2026 as the effective date for the changes to sections 20.1.1, 20.1.9 and 20.2 of the manual.
Metrópoles reported that the Banco Central recovered about R$1 billion through the MED between 2024 and 2025. To contest a return, the receiver's payment service provider must open a Recuperação de Valores in the DICT and identify the pacs.004 return transaction being challenged. O Hoje reported that an additional communication step between institutions, originally planned for August, was postponed to October 26. The changes to sections 10.1 and 20.1.5 of the manual take effect on October 26, 2026.